Tag Archives: “Windows Vista – Service Pack 2”

[RESOLVED] Your computer may stop responding when you run an application, Software Firewall or anti-virus package that uses the Windows Filtering Platform API

Your computer may stop responding when you run an application, Software Firewall or anti-virus package that uses the Windows Filtering Platform API

This issue affects the following operating systems:

  • Windows 7 – Service Pack 1
  • Windows Small Business Server 2011 – Service Pack 1
  • Windows SBS 2011 – Service Pack 1
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 – Service Pack 1
  • Windows Small Business Server 2008 – Service Pack 2
  • Windows SBS 2008 – Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2008 – Service Pack 2
  • Windows Vista – Service Pack 2

In this situation, the computer may perform slowly or stop responding and network activity may be affected.  You find that a system restart may resolve this issue in some instances.

This issue occurs because the FwpsStreamInjectAsync0 function causes the interrupt request level (IRQL) to leak.  You can resolve the issue by updating to the latest Netio.sys driver.  The download link can be found within Microsoft KB 2664888 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2664888

 

Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) General Description

Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) is a set of API and system services that provide a platform for creating network filtering applications. The WFP API allows developers to write code that interacts with the packet processing that takes place at several layers in the networking stack of the operating system. Network data can be filtered and also modified before it reaches its destination.

By providing a simpler development platform, WFP is designed to replace  previous packet filtering technologies such as Transport Driver Interface (TDI)  filters, Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) filters, and Winsock Layered Service Providers (LSP). Starting in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, the firewall hook and the filter hook drivers  are not available; applications that were using these drivers should use WFP instead.

With the WFP API, developers can implement firewalls, intrusion detection systems, antivirus programs, network monitoring tools, and parental controls. WFP integrates with and provides support for firewall features such as authenticated communication and dynamic firewall configuration based on applications’ use of sockets API (application-based policy). WFP also provides infrastructure for  IPsec policy management, change notifications, network diagnostics, and stateful filtering.

More info can be found here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366510(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 DNS Server may stop responding to DNS queries and requests from client computers

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 DNS Server may stop responding to DNS queries and requests from client computers, this issue may occur randomly and when it is occuring the DNS Server stops responding.

This issue occurs because the DNS Server goes into an infinite loop, more information about this issue and a hotfix to address the issue is provided in Microsoft KB 2655960 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2655960

Troubleshoot a Blue Screen of Death BSOD or Crash Dump on a Microsoft Windows Operating System

It’s probably the thing we all dread most, evereything has been working great for weeks/months/years and then suddenly your machine starts randomly crashing to a Blue Screen of Death or BSOD

All is not lost though as Windows will often generate its own crash dump a report of what happened to cause the crash, this is often invaluable when it comes to finding the cause and fixing it.

A company called Nirsoft offer a great little utility called Blue Screen View, you can download it from here ttp://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

This program will automatically analyse the default Mini Dump and Crash Dump locations and then pull back a summary of the driver or system file that was most likley the cause of your crash.  In many cases it’s then just a simple case of removing the offending software, updating/downgrading the device driver or installing a software patch/hotfix.

CPU Usage may increase to 100% while you are scrolling through a Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

CPU Usage may increase to 100% while you are scrolling through a Web page in Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

This can occur if the “Use smooth scrolling” option is enabled in “Internet Options” by default the “Use smooth scrolling” setting is enabled in Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9.

To resolve the issue you just need to disable/untick the “Use smooth scrolling” option in Internet Explorer by following the steps below

  1. On the “Tools” menu in Internet Explorer, click “Internet Options” then click the “Advanced” tab
  2. Click to untick the “Use smooth scrolling” check box as shown in the screenshot below

The Microsoft knowledge base article KB 885355 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885355